Soup Kitchen Musician, New York, NY, 2008

Soup Kitchen Musician, New York, NY, 2008

Tzedakah means “righteousness” or “charity”, and it’s a fundamental part of Jewish life. We are obligated to help the needy, whether they are Jewish or not. This man is a client at a soup kitchen that’s run in a synagogue on 23rd Street in New York City. While visiting the soup kitchen, he often entertains himself and others by singing and playing the guitar.

The soup kitchen is part of Project ORE (Outreach to the Elderly), an outreach program for homeless people aged 45 and older. Believed to be the only such program aimed at Jewish homelessness, Project ORE has also come to serve people who are neither Jewish, elderly, nor homeless; however, most of the participants do fit into at least two of these categories. Project ORE describes itself as “a comprehensive program that sees a homeless person not as just a cup to fill, but as a member of our human family, deserving of opportunity and dignity.”

When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back and get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; that the Eternal your G-d may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.– Deuteronomy (Devarim) 24:19-22

Sing forth, O you righteous, to the Lord; it is fit that the upright acclaim Him. Praise the Lord with the lyre; with the ten-stringed harp sing to Him; sing Him a new song; play sweetly with shouts of joy.– Psalms (Tehilim) 33:1-3